As a Virginia native, I’ve taken quite a few trips to Williamsburg and Jamestown throughout my life. I still remember how spooky I thought it was as a kid and the way the entire town smelled like cloves and woodsmoke. There is something truly magical about wandering the cobblestone streets and seeing the colonial actors dressed in historical clothing carrying lanterns and speaking in old english accents. I loved that I felt like I was living in the pages of my American Girl doll’s biography (I had Felicity - if you know, you know). I just can’t believe it took me until now to actually take a ghost tour there! My husband and I go to Williamsburg a lot for work these days, but we decided to spend an evening with Colonial Ghosts on their Boos & Booze pub crawl! It was so fun learning about the history of the buildings in the center of town and hearing about the ghosts that haunt the area. I love a good ghost tour. We’ve been on tours in Richmond (our hometown), Savannah & London, and they are always such a good time.
The ghost tour started out near The Cheese Shop in the center of town, which I highly recommend popping into if you get a chance. It’s a great place to grab a quick bite to eat or have a glass of wine on the patio.
We started the tour off at DoG Street Pub, a beautiful restaurant and bar with a history of ghost sightings. We all ordered a round of drinks as our tour guide told us stories about the colonial ghost that had been seen by some of the employees of the restaurant at night when closing up shop. My husband, Chris, and I tried a local sparkling mead that was absolutely delicious. It was a very humid evening so the cold drink was particularly refreshing, as was the A/C inside the building!
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Our next stop was a visit to the stunning campus of William & Mary. The college has been around since 1693, so of course there are a ton of ghost stories. I found this story particularly spooky, since there has been sightings of a young school child that runs along the sunken garden. I won’t give away too much about the story, but as we left the tour later that night, I couldn’t help but walk by the sunken garden to see if I caught a glimpse of the ghost. Sadly, all I saw were a few William & Mary students dancing in the middle of the field, but maybe next time I’ll be a bit more lucky.
Our second bar of the night was a popular local’s spot, Berret’s Seafood Restaurant & Taphouse Grill. They have a lovely patio outside where we sipped on a particularly delicious bourbon cocktail with mashed strawberries. Our tour group was somewhat small, but I’d highly recommend going with a group of friends or family members. The entire evening, I just wished my family and friends were there to join in on the fun! Our tour guide told us some pretty frightening and spooky information about the parking lot next to Berret’s, but I’ll spare you the details and you can find out about it on the ghost tour on your own. :)
On the way to our third and final bar, we learned a bit of history about The Kimball Theatre and the Art Museum of Colonial Williamsburg that used to be a mental hospital back in the late 1700s!
We ended the night at Precarious Beer Project, a super fun bar with multiple restaurants and arcade games inside. It’s definitely a great place to end the evening. The Friday night that we were there, the brewery was hosting a comedy night! It was buzzing with people and you could totally spend a few hours there drinking the night away after the ghost tour.
In general, I highly recommend taking a trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown if you haven’t already. I particularly recommend going in the fall, because the area is absolutely gorgeous that time of year. Williamsburg is known for being pretty humid in the summers, so I’d avoid that time of year if you can. And believe me, you won’t regret going in the fall. It’s a truly special place when the leaves are turning and the pumpkins are out. Also, if you’re in the area around Halloween time, you absolutely need to go experience Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream. You could totally fill a whole long weekend exploring Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Busch Gardens. There are also beautiful areas around Jamestown for bike riding and walking. The Colonial National Historic Highway is stunning around sunset with lovely water views of the James River. The restaurants in downtown Williamsburg are delicious too!
If you need any hotel recommendations, the Williamsburg Inn (5-star), Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection (4-star) and Cedar’s of Williamsburg Bed & Breakfast (3-star) are all great options.
Colonial Ghosts offer quite a few different types of tours throughout the year, like the Colonial Ghosts of Christmas Past tour and the Taste of Williamsburg culinary food tour. The classic ghost tour starts earlier in night (around 7 pm) that would be great for families, and the Dead of Night tour later (around 10 pm) is for those who want to explore under the cover of darkness. You can even combine ghost tours!
If you’re more of a history buff and want to tour some of the old buildings like the Governor’s Palace, Courthouse, and Capitol with staged performances, I definitely recommend this Colonial Williamsburg pass here. Yorktown and Jamestown are also fun visits, so I’d recommend this full-day tour that leaves from Williamsburg.
If you’re interested in taking the same pub crawl as we did, you can find it here! Or if you’d rather take the classic ghost tour, you can read more about it here.
Happy Haunting!
<3 Myles Katherine